Dark Mage, Chapter 14: Watching the Party

Last time on Dark Mage, Emily used her new reality-warping powers to simultaneously restore the kobolds’ homeworld and weave the Otherworlds onto the Magic Web. Oh, and Emily was taken by some purple thing while the rest of her party was stuck fighting shadow creatures. Who took Emily, and where did they go? And will Emily go crazy with her newfound powers? Find out after the cut.

Today we return to Kara’s party as they continue to explore the Shopping Realm and get awesome deals on new equipment for the party!

… OK, I lied. We’re back with the Dark Sorceress, who is watching Kara’s party through her scrying pool.

“But wait!” you say. “The Sorceress has limited magic reserves!” Well, that’s where that shadow leech on Gardener comes into play. The Sorceress used whatever magic the leech siphoned off of Gardener in order to spy on Kara. And she’s quite pleased with the results: Kara has succeeded in taking a Power Crystal from the Spider Witch’s web. So of course the Sorceress concludes that Kara will make a perfect ally for her.

Gardener and the Sorceress then have a little conversation about the Generic Fantasy Prophecy. The Sorceress claims that she’s proof that the Generic Fantasy Prophecy always comes true. Gardener then gets pissed at the Sorceress for magically nuking Aldenmor in the first half of the series. However, the Sorceress claims that she only magically nuked Aldenmor so that the current party could “test” the Generic Fantasy Prophecy.

This then leads to Gardener getting pissed at the Sorceress for effing up the Original Party’s quest at the Gates of Avalon. He’s envious of the Original Party — especially the Sorceress — for having bonded animals. Now, knowing what the Sorceress did to dual-class to a dark mage, you’d think that the Sorceress would be affected by Gardener’s mention of bonded animals. Well, the Sorceress is still affected by her bonded animal’s death, but she says that she doesn’t care about it. Instead, she claims that the Original Party is still alive because of what she did at the Gates of Avalon. Gardener’s all like, “We’ve lived beyond our time!”

… And the Sorceress totally agrees. You see, she needs magic to live, which is why she’s been collecting animal magic. At last, a motive!

Gardener then tells the Sorceress that the current party will stop her. The Sorceress plays the “I’m a better mentor figure than you are!” card, and she’s totally justified in this regard because a) she got Kara to open the Fairy Map and find Avalon, b) she magically nuked Aldenmor so the current party could retrieve the Power Crystals, and c) she gave Emily that tutorial on using her new magic-weaving powers. What has Gardener done? Not much, other than being captured by the Sorceress and sending an e-mail to the party.

The Sorceress then returns to spying on Kara while some guards wheel in cages full of shadow creatures and sic them on Gardener….